Fireside Publishing House Authors

Roderick Benns

Roderick Benns is the founder of Fireside Publishing House and is the author of the first two books in the award-winning Leaders & Legacies series on Canada’s Prime Ministers as teens.

The Legends of Lake on the Mountain: An Early Adventure of John A. Macdonald

The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder: An Early Adventure of John Diefenbaker

He is also the author of Arthur Meighen: A Way with Words — The Story of Canada’s Ninth Prime Minister, and most recently, Basic Income: How a Canadian Movement Could Change the World.

Long ago, Roderick memorized all the Prime Ministers in order and decided there was a future in this dubious accomplishment. Raised in the scenic, small town of Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, he went on to a varied writing career spanning 25 years. He is an award-winning journalist, having captured a 1st place national newspaper award in the 1990s for journalistic initiative through the Canadian Community of Newspapers Association.

Caroline Woodward

Caroline Woodward is a first year political science student at the University of Ottawa.

Caroline was born in Montreal and now lives in Ottawa.

‘Showdown at Bordertown: An Early Adventure of Paul Martin’ is her very first (and hopefully not her last) novel.

Barbara Martin

Raised on a farm north east of Aurora Ontario, Barbara Martin has always had plenty of time to daydream and write.

She has had several short stories published and won third prize in the Writers Community of Durham Region’s (WCDR) 2013 short story contest. Her story Good Food can be read in the anthology entitled Amprosia.

Barbara is a member of WCDR and CANSCAIP. She is currently working on a teen mystery.Barbara is married to her very loving and supportive husband, Michael. Together they have two beautiful daughters, Stephanie and Cathlin who are quite talented writers themselves. Children still play a big role in Barbara’s life as she works in a daycare in the Greater Toronto Area.

Steve Pitt

Steve Pitt has been a professional writer for more than four decades. He is the author of ten books, many book reviews and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. In 1980 he won the Periodical Distributors Authors’ Award for humour with a groundhog recipe article that was published in Harrowsmith magazine. Besides writing, Steve has also worked as movie extra, army reservist, truck driver, armoured truck guard, professional cook, men’s shelter manager, martial arts instructor and stay-at-home parent.

Steve has visited every province and territory in Canada. He travelled to the Yukon twice in the 1980s — once for a wedding and again to raise geese and scrub gold pans. The geese were more fun. Steve met Art Fry many times. He never met Pierre Berton. He met Pierre Trudeau only once, very briefly, after they nearly collided into each other on the basement steps of a restaurant in Toronto’s Chinatown. They both said “Excuse me!” and deftly pirouetted safely out of each other’s way.